Nelia Sancho, a former beauty queen who later became an activist fighting for women’s rights and co-founded the group Gabriela, has passed away. She was 71.
Sancho, who bagged the Queen of the Pacific title in 1971, was found dead at the UP Bliss House in Quezon City around 10 a.m. on Thursday, Dr. Jean Lindo of Gabriela Women’s Party said in a MindaNews report.
Lindo said it was Sancho’s son Antonio Karlo who informed them of his mother’s death.
Gabriela party-list confirmed her passing to ABS-CBN News on Friday but did not specify the cause of her death.
“She is proof that women are not meant to be submissive and obedient but have a crucial role in pushing for genuine freedom and human rights,” Gabriela said in a statement.
Hailing from a prominent family in Aklan, Sancho became a beauty queen between the 1960s and ’70s.
In 1969, while still a student at the University of the Philippines (UP), she joined Binibining Pilipinas and finished first runner-up to Gloria Diaz, who would eventually become the country’s first Miss Universe titleholder.
Sancho earned her own title in 1971 when she was crowned “Queen of the Pacific” in Melbourne, Australia. She was also an in-demand model for Pitoy Moreno and other fashion designers.
Sancho later left the limelight and became a student activist during Martial Law, earning the moniker “Rebel Queen” from the international media.
“She became an active face during demonstrations, she participated and immersed herself to the masses and eventually went underground in pursuit of meaningful changes in the country,” non-governmental organization Dakila described Sancho in a 2016 Women’s Month tribute.
Sancho was arrested for charges of subversion during immersion in the slum areas of Cagayan de Oro City. She was detained for two years, from 1976 to 1978, but was released for humanitarian reasons.
During the late ’90s, she was also the secretary-general of Lila-Filipina, a group that advocated for Filipina comfort women who were abused by Japanese soldiers during World War 2.
Before her passing, she had still been active in fighting for comfort women and victims of human trafficking.
Lindo thanked Sancho for her great contributions to the women’s movement and empowerment of vulnerable communities as a queen who “struggled with the people at the grassroots level.”
“You were not just Queen of the Pacific. You were not the kind of feminist defined by the corporate world,” she said in the MindaNews report.
Although vilified for her advocacies, Lindo added that people around the world praised Sancho for her work for peace and justice.
“I raise my clenched fist to the extraordinary human. Paalam at Salamat, Nelia Sancho. I am grieving yet I see purpose in you and it’s alive,” she said.